World is sleepwalking towards another financial crisis, warns former UK PM

Speaking to the Guardian about the risk of another economic collapse a decade on, he said: 'We are in danger of sleepwalking into a future crisis. "There is going to have to be a severe awakening to the escalation of risks, but we are in a leaderless world".

The politician - who was leader of the Labour Party from 2007 to 2010 - said the world was now in danger of falling into a financial crisis to equal that of 2008 and 2009.

Brown said the worldwide cooperation that helped tackle the global financial crisis ten years ago may not exist today because countries have become more protectionist.

"We would have a blame-sharing exercise rather than solving the problem".

"There wouldn't be the same willingness to cooperate but rather a tendency to blame each other for what's gone wrong".

"Countries have retreated into nationalist silos and that has brought us protectionism and populism".

Brown said the global economy had failed to introduce an early warning system and a way of monitoring financial flows so that it was possible to tell where money had been lent and on what terms.

Asked if the PM was confident the United Kingdom would not suffer any adverse consequences, even with a potential loosening of regulations in the U.S., the spokeswoman said: "In recent years we have reformed regulation of the City, and put in place an incredibly robust system, [while] at the same time making sure it's globally competitive".

He said the worldwide co-ordination needed in the fall-out of the 2008 crash "would be impossible now" due in part to Donald Trump. He said: "We did not know what was going on in some of the institutions, some of it illegal, and which was being covered up".

"The penalties for wrongdoing have not been increased sufficiently". "The fear that bankers will be imprisoned for bad behavior is not there".

"There has not been a strong enough message sent out that government won't rescue institutions that haven't put their houses in order".